{"id":109165,"date":"2026-07-28T20:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T20:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/109165\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T20:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T20:03:09","slug":"arcana-at-the-bbc-proms-louise-alder-london-philharmonic-orchestra-edward-gardner-from-the-alps-to-the-auvergne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/109165\/","title":{"rendered":"Arcana at the BBC Proms \u2013 Louise Alder, London Philharmonic Orchestra \/ Edward Gardner: From the Alps to the Auvergne"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Louise Alder (soprano), London Philharmonic Orchestra \/ Edward Gardner<\/p>\n

Tj\u00f8gersen Between Trees (2021)
Canteloube from Chants d\u2019Auvergne (1923-55): La pastoura als camps; La dela\u00efss\u00e1do; Deux bourr\u00e9es; Lou coucut; Ba\u00efl\u00e8ro
Richard Strauss Eine Alpensinfonie Op.64 (1911-15)<\/p>\n

Royal Albert Hall, London
Monday 27 July 2026<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood Photos (c) BBC \/ Chris Christodoulou<\/p>\n

The music for this invigorating Prom drew us outdoors, to Norwegian woods, the fields of Auvergne and the mountains of the Alps \u2013 all brought to us in glorious technicolour by an orchestra on top of their game.<\/p>\n

The Norwegian forest was first, a 360 degree view turning the Royal Albert Hall itself into a vast canopy. Kristine Tj\u00f8gersen\u2019s Between Trees was full of sonic invention, an intriguing portrait by turns humorous, ominous, light, heavy, happy and sad. The instrumental effects (water in the brass instruments, \u2018prepared\u2019 harp and strings) would have been gimmicky in the wrong hands, but Tj\u00f8gersen clearly knows her way around a symphony orchestra and ensured all were used to the greater good.<\/p>\n

The creak of a branch, the snap of a twig and even the underground workings of fungi and insect life \u2013 all were vividly evoked, to the point of wondering if the casing around the organ was even swaying in the light wind! Every rustle had a purpose, pointed towards the more conventional passages for horn quartet and strings in the closing pages, where unexpectedly sharp points of emotion lay in wait. Tj\u00f8rgersen, who was in the audience, begins a three-year residence with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra next season. On this evidence hers is a striking, individual voice, a composer to follow closely.<\/p>\n

Canteloube is a rare visitor to the Proms on account of his small output, heavily weighted towards his crowd-pleasing Chants d\u2019Auvergne. These settings of traditional Auvergnian folksongs for soprano and orchestra are largely pastoral affairs, descriptively bringing their shepherds and birds to life. It proved impossible to listen, however, without a strong pull of sympathy for those suffering at the hands of the fires in France, a feeling heightened by the sorrowful La dela\u00efss\u00e1do (The Abandoned Shepherdess). The part was inhabited with great feeling by soprano Louise Alder, supported by meltingly beautiful solos from cor anglais (Sue B\u00f6hling) and oboe (Ian Hardwick).<\/p>\n

By contrast the bright La pastoura als camps (The Shepherdess in the Pasture) revelled in the open air, while the Deux bourr\u00e9es danced lightly, the second (Lo calh\u00e9) especially, the quail a worrisome presence as it protected its nest. Lou coucut (The Cuckoo) was funny, heightened by Alder\u2019s side glances to the audience, but inevitably the showstopper was Ba\u00efl\u00e8ro, the shepherd\u2019s song drawing an exquisite tone from the soprano and the supporting London Philharmonic Orchestra woodwind.<\/p>\n

Donning our crampons after the interval, we joined Edward Gardner in an ascent he knows well, scaling the peak of Richard Strauss\u2019s Eine Alpensinfonie, a piece both he and the LPO have captured on record. Familiarity in this case brought a tight structural grasp of the arching structure, whose 22 sections lasted 48 minutes \u2013 a relatively quick interpretation. Some of the sections did indeed move a little too quickly, the ascent taken by quick mountaineers, but the vistas on display were stunning in their sound quality.<\/p>\n

The brass in particular excelled, trombones (led by Mark Templeton), trumpets (Tom Nielsen), tubas (Lee Tsarmaklis) and horns, both onstage (John Ryan) and off (Annemarie Federle), the latter expertly marshalled in the gallery by conductor Wilson Ng, who successfully accounted for the sonic delay.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the percussion took the brunt of the Thunderstorm, the wind machines whirring as timpani rolled and struck with ever greater danger, the mountain revealing its dark side. As an orchestral sound painter, Strauss is almost without equal, and his gifts were shown off repeatedly as Gardner showed us the waterfall, flowery meadows, mountain pasture and glacier in glorious technicolour. The LPO woodwind were crystal clear in the rarefied air, the burnished strings enjoying the rich melodies and cadences. Balancing everything was Richard Gowers on the Albert Hall organ, his church solo ideally rendered as the magical coda approached, setting us back on the arena floor where this extended musical paragraph began.<\/p>\n

You can listen to this Proms concert on BBC Sounds<\/a> until the end of September 2026. Meanwhile you can click on the link to access Richard Strauss\u2019s Eine Alpensinfonie as recorded by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Edward Gardner<\/a><\/p>\n

Published post no.2,961 \u2013 Tuesday 28 July 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Louise Alder (soprano), London Philharmonic Orchestra \/ Edward Gardner Tj\u00f8gersen Between Trees (2021)Canteloube from Chants d\u2019Auvergne (1923-55): La…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[16],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-109165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alps","tag-alps"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}